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A rebound year for apples? Central New York orchards celebrate a 'normal' spring

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Beak & Skiff apple orchard manager Peter Fleckenstein shows buds on a Macintosh apple tree that are just turning green. That's normal for this time of year; last year early warm weather caused the trees to flower early, and then they suffered frost damage last April and May.
(Michelle Gabel / The Post-Standard)

The harvest didn't come until fall, of course, but the devastation was obvious in the spring: A series of balmy 70 degree-plus days last March caused the trees to bloom and flower a month early. Then, when bitter cold nights came along in April and May, the frost killed the flowers.

No flowers, no apples.

This year, the weather is much more cooperative. The cool spring has kept the trees on a more normal course of development. The buds on the trees are only just now showing some green – the first step toward the bloom.

“Seeing green on April 15 -- that's exactly normal," said Peter Fleckenstein, orchard manager at Beak & Skiff Apple Farms in LaFayette. "We’re setting up for a full bloom in mid-May, which is exactly normal.”

Spring 2012: Peter Fleckenstein lights a hay fire to keep the trees warm at the Beak & Skiff Apple Farm in LaFayette. Freezing temperatures that followed a warm March last spring damaged the apple trees, causing the loss of about 70 percent of Beak & Skiff's crop. Dick Blume / The Post-Standard 2012

“This year is the polar opposite of last year,” said Fleckenstein, who spent many cold nights last spring lighting fires to warm the trees. “At this time last year, we had everything flowering and then we had seven or eight nights of real cold and trying to keep them warm. This year, we're seeing that green just when we're supposed to."

Even some cold nights now won’t have the same effect as last year because the just-green buds are better able to stand the cold than the fully bloomed flowers.

“Last year we had the huge heat up and then the huge temperature drop, and the trees were just in no shape to take it,’ said Eric Behling, owner of Behling’s Orchards in Mexico. “This year the tree will be be in better shape to handle a temperature drop.”

In April 2012: Beak & Skiff orchard manager Peter Fleckenstein checks frost damage on the flowers that bloomed on the apple trees due to an early warm spell in March. The orchard lost about 70 percent of its crop.Dick Blume / The Post-Standard 2012

This week’s forecast from Post-Standard meteorologist Dave Eichorn shows the high temperatures in the Syracuse area could climb into the 70s or possibly even approach 80 later this week. Night-time lows won't drop below freezing before the weekend.

“If we get to 70 -- at that point, you could almost look at the tree and see the green move before your eyes,” Fleckenstein said. “This is the week that things will start to happen.”

New York is the nation's second-leading apple producing state (after Washington). The state's 600-plus orchards produce about 29.5 million bushels -- and earn about $300 million in a typical year, according to Jim Allen, president of the New York Apple Association.

"Across the board, around the state, we're seeing everything just about where it should be at this time of year -- and that's nothing like it was last year," Allen said. "What a difference a year makes."

Statewide, the crop loss last year was 55 to 60 percent, Allen said. Orchards like Beak & Skiff suffered bigger losses because so much of their fruit is destined to be eaten fresh, not processed.

"The weather damage takes a heavier toll on the fresh crop," Allen said, because even the apples that survive are dinged up and mis-shapen, making them unappetizing as ready-to-eat fruit.

Of course, nothing is certain in agriculture, but so far the orchard owners are happy with what they're seeing for 2013.

"I have tons of fruit buds and they're all nice and tight, just where they ought to be," Critz said late last week. "That's why I'm smiling this year."